South Florida Water Management District seeks Mecca Farms deal

Palm Beach County taxpayers may not recoup $100M investment

Palm Beach County is in talks with the South Florida Water Management District… (By Mark Randall )

May 23, 2012|By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel

The environment could get a boost, but taxpayers may not recover their $100 million investment under a new deal proposed for Palm Beach County's Mecca Farms.

The South Florida Water Management District is making a push to acquire the more than 1,900 acres of former citrus groves west of Palm Beach Gardens that the county once intended to turn into a biotech industry hub.

The county sunk more than $100 million of taxpayer money into a failed bid to turn Mecca Farms into a home for The Scripps Research Institute and spin off high-tech businesses.

Environmental concerns in 2006 moved Scripps east to Jupiter and left the county stuck looking for a buyer to try to recoup taxpayers' costs.

The new proposal calls for the water management district to acquire the land north of Northlake Boulevard, using it for water storage and to create a long-planned "flow way" to get more water to the Loxahatchee River.

"We have been talking" County Administrator Robert Weisman said Tuesday. "It's possible we could have such an offer from [the district] by the end of the week."

That offer is likely to include a combination of a land swap and some cash, according to Ernie Barnett, the district's director of Everglades policy. How much land and how much money has yet to be determined, he said.

The district proposes entering a 120-day due diligence period for both sides to try to put together a deal that works, Barnett said.

Land on the trading block could include district property in the Agricultural Reserve – prime farmland west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach that the county is trying to protect from development.

"It's very early in the process," Barnett said. "The preliminary discussions have been very positive."

Selling Mecca Farms to developers was supposed to be the county's insurance policy for recovering taxpayers' investment in the land if the Scripps deal fizzled.

But South Florida's housing boom went bust at the same time as the plans to put Scripps on Mecca Farms, and since then the county hasn't had any buyers willing to pay close to what the land ended up costing the public.

That could make just a land swap for Mecca Farms a tough sell.

"We will have to see what the details are," said County Commission Chairwoman Shelley Vana, who wasn't on the board that approved buying Mecca Farms. "[The county] spent a lot of money on it. … We'll see."

The prospect of the district acquiring Mecca Farms for the benefit of the Loxahatchee River would be vindication for environmental groups that fought the Scripps proposal and spin-off development expected to follow.

"All along we have been supporting this kind of a decision," said Joanne Davis, of the growth watchdog group 1000 Friends of Florida. "Sometimes, we have to go back to what we knew was right in the first place."

The county's most recent plan for Mecca Farms was to lease it to farmers while continuing to hunt for a buyer.

A deal given initial approval in March called for leasing at least 750 acres to Pope Farms Inc. to crow crops. That deal, where Pope Farms would pay $200 an acre a year for at least five years, has yet to be finalized and would not stand in the way of a sale to the water management district, Weisman said.

Creating a "flow way," that could clean up pollution and help replenish the Loxahatchee River, has long been part of the plans for Mecca Farms.

The old Mecca development plan called for creating a 600-acre waterway that could double as an aesthetic attraction as well as environmental enhancement.

The flow way once envisioned would have cost $6 million and included a man-made marsh that could filter phosphorus and other pollutants from stormwater that would be redirected to the Loxahatchee.

The district's push to acquire Mecca Farms is driven by the agency potentially redirecting water from a $217 million, rock-mine-turned-reservoir west of Royal Palm Beach that hasn't delivered the water once intended for the Loxahatchee River.

The district may opt to send more of that reservoir south, instead of north to the Loxahatchee River, to help meet federal water quality standards in the Everglades. Storing and cleaning stormwater at Mecca Farms could allow the district to meet its commitment to replenish the river.

Florida for years has fallen short of federal water quality requirements as well as Everglades restoration goals. The Mecca Farms deal could become part of efforts to revamp state Everglades restoration plans.